10/9/13

On Wednesday, October 9, at his general audience, Pope Francis made these remarks on what it means for the Church to call itself Catholic. What the pope has to say about the diversity of the gifts of the Spirit in the life of the Catholic Church is especially interesting and worth our reflection and prayer. Of course, the last paragraph here needs to be understood in tandem with what precedes it.

Vatican
City, 9 October 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father dedicated the
catechesis of today's general audience to catholicism and the concept
of being Catholic. He explained three fundamental meanings of the
idea, based on the Greek “kath'olon”, “totality”, and how
these can be applied to the Church.

Firstly,
“the Church is Catholic”, he said, “because she is the space,
the house in which the faith in its entirety is announced, in which
the salvation brought by Christ is offered to all”. … In the
Church, every one of us finds what is necessary to believe, to live
as Christians, to became holy, to walk this path in every place and
in every age”.

“The
Church is Catholic”, he continued, explaining the second meaning,
“because she is universal, she spreads through every part of the
world and proclaims the Gospel to every man and every woman. The
Church is not an elite group, she does not concern only the few. …
The Church is not closed, she is sent to all of humanity. She is the
only Church present even in the seemingly least significant parts of
humanity”.

With
regard to the third meaning of Catholicism, the Pope reiterated how
“the Church is Catholic because she is the 'House of harmony' where
unity and diversity know how to come together to create richness”.
The Holy Father compared this to the image of the symphony, which
means harmony and accord, in which different instruments play
together. Each one retains its own inimitable timbre and the
characteristics of its sound, guided by a director who ensures that
the instruments all play together in harmony, but that the timbre of
each instrument is not cancelled; on the contrary, the special
quality of each one finds its highest expression. The Church, he
said, “is like a great orchestra. We are not all the same, and we
should not all be the same”, he emphasised. “Each person offers
what God has given him”.

The
Pope concluded by asking the 60,000 pilgrims present in St. Peter's
Square to live this harmony and to accept diversity, without seeking
uniformity. “The life of the Church is variety”, he said, “and
when we seek to make it uniform, we erode the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. … Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may render us ever more
'Catholic'!”

Are you thinking about becoming a Catholic?

The best place to start is always one of your local Catholic churches. Drop in some Sunday and see what's going on. Then you might speak to the pastor or someone on the parish staff about how they can help you and respond to your questions.